prorectors as memento mori of the low-ranked
for many of the more neurasthenic E.T.A. students the prorectors are kind of repellent the way hideously old people are repellent, reminding the students of the kind of low-prestige purgatorial fate that awaits the marginal and low-ranked jr. player
Context
The prorectors embody, for the anxious junior, the future of a body that doesn't make it. They're "repellent the way hideously old people are repellent, reminding the students of the... low-prestige purgatorial fate that awaits the marginal and low-ranked jr. player." The failed athlete's destiny walks the halls in the flesh — the drill-assistant who didn't reach the Show is a living warning. The institution's staff are its own memento mori: this is what your body becomes if it plateaus too low. (Pairs with n097's Ride and n004/n104's role-definition.)